OnePlus One pre-order promo extended until at least 2PM EST, running into issues (updated)

Update 2: 

Considering OnePlus One’s promotions are known for their occasional snafus, it’s not a major surprise to hear that OnePlus’ website has ran into some down-time issues.

Many folks are still struggling to get in and get their pre-orders out, though it appears that OnePlus has extended the promotion until at least 2PM EST in order to help make up for the issues. It’s also possible they’ll extend it even further or even reschedule if things don’t start to smooth out in the next little bit — though that’s really just speculation on our part.

Anyone try to pre-order yet? If so, were you successful?

Update: The OnePlus One will go on pre-order (no invite required) in roughly 15 minutes – go to this link to prepare your pre-order! The pre-order session will be only open for one hour!

There’s a lot to like about the OnePlus One, but the company’s invite system can be a big turn off for many would-be buyers. While it’s true that determined folks have found it increasingly easier to snag an invite by hanging around OPO’s forums, if you want a hoop-free method for getting the handset you’ll be happy to know that the phone will go up for pre-order on October 27th starting at 15:00 GMT (8:00am PST) for an hour. After that time, you’ll be SOL and will have to return to waiting for an invite.

Now it’s unclear how long it will take for OnePlus to ship out pre-ordered units, though we imagine it depends on how quickly you pre-order your device during that one hour window. For those that want to ensure the pre-order process goes as smoothly as possible, you can prepare your pre-order ahead of time, so that way you’re just one click away from ordering when things open up on October 27th.

As for the pricing? The same invite-only pricing applies here, $299 for a 16GB model and $349 for the 64GB edition. For those looking for a near-stock handset with a budget friendly price tag and a bigger display size, the OPO is certainly an appealing device and much cheaper than Google’s latest Nexus 6.

So how about it, anyone planning to pre-order the OnePlus One?